The ONLY Truth in Politicshttps://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com
Just another WordPress.com siteThu, 17 Aug 2017 12:15:04 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngThe ONLY Truth in Politicshttps://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com
Will Trump “Declare Victory” and Resign?https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/will-trump-declare-victory-and-resign/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/will-trump-declare-victory-and-resign/#respondThu, 17 Aug 2017 12:05:38 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=912Continue reading →]]>Tony Schwartz, the co-author of Trump’s book, “The Art of the Deal,” has declared that “the noose is tightening” around Trump’s neck and that he will soon “declare victory” and resign. Schwartz got to know Trump very well when writing this book and probably knows the Trumpian psyche better than anyone outside of his family and understands that Trump would have to put a positive spin on the ignominy of being forced to resign. It does appear Trump will have to resign unless someone can stop him from starting a war, the latter being the one thing that would galvanize his waning support. But should this happen he will enthusiastically and defiantly declare victory in his brief tenure, refusing to acknowledge the failure that is apparent to all as he is constitutionally incapable of admitting he has failed or made a mistake.

This inability to admit error is the character flaw that has always fascinated me the most about Trump, but even more so about many of his supporters. He was uncannily astute in the campaign when he declared that he could stand in the streets of Manhattan and shoot somebody and not lose support. This has been demonstrated since then as he has said and done things which no other president would have ever gotten by with and even today, with his fortunes going south, those who call themselves “strong Republicans” back him to the tune of 79 per cent! This reveals that his support is not a rational, but an emotional, matter.

We humans are first emotional, not rational creatures. That is why we are so susceptible to manipulation by the media as those controlling the media recognize the power they have with the imagery they produce. Furthermore, given the lack of emphasis of critical thinking in our educational system we produce citizens who do not really “think” but merely passively absorb what they encounter in their day to day life, including through the media, without giving it any critical thought.

Therefore, huge sections of our population will enthusiastically accept any Trump declaration of victory should he resign and follow his lead in blaming the “fake news” media, the Democrats, or what I like to call collectively “them.” For Trump has been the poster-boy for an external locus of control, blaming others for anything and everything that goes wrong in their life.

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/will-trump-declare-victory-and-resign/feed/021stcenturyxstianTrump Echoes Jim Carrey, “SOMEBODY, Stop Me!!!”https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/trump-echoes-jim-carrey-somebody-stop-me/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/trump-echoes-jim-carrey-somebody-stop-me/#respondWed, 16 Aug 2017 19:53:13 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=909Continue reading →]]>As the Trump train wreck careens down the track, desperately seeking the misery-relief its final catastrophe will bring, I can’t help but feel a touch of pity for Trump and also for Trump-lite, Steve Bannon. There is a sense in which Trump cannot help himself. He was, shall we say, “temperamentally unfit” for the Presidency from the outset which is how Hillary so kindly put it but the GOP was so hapless and self-serving it could not pass up the best desperate effort it had to win the election. And, this decision was in spite of the obvious fact that he was sorely ill-equipped politically, morally, and ethically to lead our country. There is a sense in which the GOP has deliberately exploited a “troubled child” for their own purposes which in some sense is nothing more than “child abuse.” Trump cannot handle the pressure he is under, demonstrated again yesterday when he again “went rogue” by going “off-script” and launching into a Neanderthal tirade while his handlers stood on the side line and watched in mute terror.

On the rare occasions when Trump has performed according to script, even if it was obviously a “scripted” performance, he managed to turn in a more or less convincing performance. And, yes it was “convincing” if you could manage to overlook the obvious consideration that he was aping the words that someone had fed him against his will. But performing according to the script is what life is all about though most of us have decided to do this in early youth when our unconscious needs have been satisfied and we dutifully sign the social contract. Trump never signed any social contract and therefore complying with any script goes against the very fiber of his being and at some point the real Donald, the two-year old Donald still trapped in the “terrible two’s” comes to the fore again and we see him going rogue. In some sense he is actor Jim Carrey in one of his movies announcing with a leering, menacing, “SOMEBODY, stop me!!!”

Now poor Steve Bannon. He also cannot help it that he is “the toy of some great pain” and that he is, shall we say, “not very photogenic.” So I guess we progressives should “make nice” and not ridicule these two and their ilk, huh? Well, perhaps we need to dial it back occasionally but we do need some expression for our fury at the moral, ethical, and spiritual abuse the GOP is subjecting our country to. I guess we could mount street marches with slogans that parallel those of the white nationalist. And here I started to offer a few but you will have to “fill in the blanks” with your own. And it can be done. Civility does seem to have flown the coop and that does stem for a complete disregard for “the script” of common civility, courtesy, respect, and decorum that makes us human even if at times it has the air of insincerity.

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/trump-echoes-jim-carrey-somebody-stop-me/feed/021stcenturyxstianTrump Has a Point Here about Charlottesville!!!https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/trump-has-a-point-here-about-charlottesville/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/trump-has-a-point-here-about-charlottesville/#respondWed, 16 Aug 2017 15:17:03 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=894Continue reading →]]>On the Charlottesville issue that is before my country, Trump has argued that if we must take down the statue of Robert E. Lee we need to take down the statues of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and their ilk. Hmm. Well, he has a point…if you want to follow the dictates of reason. But, if you follow the dictates of reason in the vein that he is suggesting it will take him and our country further than he has in mind for it will take us to the very foundation of our country which included a rigid distinction of “us” vs. “them.” Yes, there was the necessary violent Revolutionary War in which we told Great Britain, “We no longer want to play with you guys” but more subtle was the implicit statement by our physical presence in the New World to the Native Americans, “This land-mass is now ours and you submit or we will destroy you.” Shortly thereafter, we made a similar implicit announcement to African-Americans that we had imported to be slave-labor, “You will continue to be subservient and slaves and at best will only have 3/5 citizenship.”

Yes, Reason, if given full-sway will always lead an individual or a nation to an existential crisis but this is usually avoided by utilizing reason only for a limited purpose to accomplish some self-serving goal. Trump’s argumentation, the result of huddling with his “Stevens” (Miller and Bannon) is intended only to diminish the rationale of those who oppose their virulent white-nationalism; but, if they want to make their point, I challenge them to take their point to a more logical conclusion and let reason challenge the very basis of our collective existence as well as the very basis of their individual existence. Yes, Reason if used for something other than self-gratification…and Bannon knows something about this (wink, wink)…would let Trumpers see that their first concern is only emotional/spiritual auto-erotic satisfaction, the legitimization of a self-serving world view.

This puts the issues before us in the Spiritual realm but the “Spiritual realm” I have in mind is not the narcissistic playground of people like Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church, Dallas and Jerry Falwell Jr and their ilk. For Spirituality is not a self-indulgent enterprise and requires the understanding that all spirituality begins with a dimension of the infantile narcissism which refuses self-awareness and is challenging to ever out grow.

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/trump-has-a-point-here-about-charlottesville/feed/021stcenturyxstianTrump Must Not Criticize White Supremacy!https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/trump-must-not-criticize-white-supremacy/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/trump-must-not-criticize-white-supremacy/#respondMon, 14 Aug 2017 11:33:47 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=884Continue reading →]]>That is right! Because he tells the truth. Contrary to “Lyin’ Ted” and “Crooked Hillary” he tells the truth and to suddenly be critical of white supremacy when he is the poster boy for white supremacy would be a bald faced lie! Furthermore, he is the picture of consistency. He never backs down from principle and to suddenly equivocate from his white supremacy loyalty would be nothing more than a lame-ass caving-in to fake news!

Seriously, words do matter. Trump can’t shut up and can’t filter the impulses of that two-year old reptilian brain so the detritus that flows from his mind, including his tweets, is tightening the noose around his neck and that of his minions.

Also, note that white supremacy and Vladimir Putin have this in common—Trump will not say anything critical of them even when his reticence is glaringly suspicious. It is as if white supremacists and Putin have something over him…and, of course, they do. It is obvious he owes his election to white supremacists and to the Russians.

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/trump-must-not-criticize-white-supremacy/feed/021stcenturyxstianBe Kind to the Mentally Ill!!!https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/be-kind-to-the-mentally-ill/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/be-kind-to-the-mentally-ill/#respondWed, 09 Aug 2017 12:20:36 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=880Continue reading →]]>Early in grade school we were taught to be nice to our class mates who were, well…ahem…pause….”kinda different.” Later we began to describe them as “nuts” and only later more properly as “mentally ill.” We learned that to make fun of someone who was mentally ill, to ridicule him, was just not very nice and would merit a stern rebuff from the teacher. We learned that someone who was mentally ill or disabled in any fashion just could not help it and that we owned them the respect of being a fellow human.

But what do you do when the President of the United States is mentally ill? It still is not nice to make fun of him, knowing that he can’t stand being humiliated even though his mental illness leads him daily to humiliate himself and the entire country. But it is hard to not give in to the human impulse, especially when he occupies a position that by definition should mean he is the embodiment of “mentally healthy.”

But my main concern is the group of people who selected this man to be their candidate for this powerful position. And when they began the process of making their choice they already had plenty of evidence that he was mentally unstable unless you are willing to discuss numerous video clips of him openly disclosing incestuous designs toward his beautiful young daughter. These people…and here I am talking about the hierarchy of the Republican Party…knew that Trump was “temperamentally unfit to be President of the United States” (Hillary Clinton’s description) and they did not intervene when they had a chance. These people demonstrated the systemic “mental instability” of the Republican Party over the past few decades as they lacked the judgment that would have put the welfare of the nation over their desire to win an election.

We now are witnessing this mentally ill two-year old rattling nuclear sabers with an equally mentally ill two-year old in North Korea and millions of lives are in jeopardy. The situation is so grievous that humor and ridicule seem ill-advised unless we start placing more of its focus on people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, not to mention the hordes of “handlers” who continue to prop this evil man up. We are again seeing illustrated the wisdom of Shakespeare who told us that human enterprise, “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

Lord help us. And by that I sincerely and humbly pray, “Lord, help us.”

The following is a list of my blogs. Please check the others out!

http//Literarylew.wordpress.com

http//anrrantbaptistpreacher.wordpress.com

http//Theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/be-kind-to-the-mentally-ill/feed/021stcenturyxstianThe Trumpian Black Hole Continues to Gnaw Into Our Collective Hearthttps://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/the-trumpian-black-hole-continues-to-gnaw-into-our-collective-heart/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/the-trumpian-black-hole-continues-to-gnaw-into-our-collective-heart/#respondSun, 23 Jul 2017 11:38:55 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=872Continue reading →]]>Trump’s malignant narcissism becomes more apparent daily. He is governed by whims which have been unchecked since the indulgence he was given during his “terrible two’s” some 69 years ago. One of the many anecdotes that graphically illustrate this is his brazen visit to the dressing room of a teen age girls beauty contest decades ago where he could fulfill his own teen-age fantasy of “checking out the merchandise.” On the matter of sexuality, not to mention political, social, and economic concerns, everyone has fantasies that reality mercifully tells us are “inappropriate” or even unlawful. We then filter our impulses and do not act on them. Trump was born into circumstances where he was empowered to act on them, then rewarded for doing so, and discovered his willfulness could even lead him to be POTUS.

And now ensconced in the Presidency, he is not deterred by the “niceties” of political common sense and has brazenly declared he is so powerful he can pardon anyone he wants to, including himself. The Republican base has found the embodiment of their ruthless quest for power and control though, like a dog chasing a car that has captured its prey, they will have to ask the question, “Now what?” Trump has brought family and friends into positions of great power where they are fattening their purses and he has reassured them, “Go ahead. I’ll pardon you on the drop of a hat.” Trump is now demonstrating the Republican’s quest for unchecked power but unchecked power is always a Pyrrhic victory, always the product of a black hole in the heart that always leads to self-destruction and threatened destruction of everyone and everything nearby.

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/the-trumpian-black-hole-continues-to-gnaw-into-our-collective-heart/feed/021stcenturyxstianThe “Will to Power” in Politicshttps://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/the-will-to-power-in-politics/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/the-will-to-power-in-politics/#respondSun, 16 Jul 2017 11:12:40 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=870Continue reading →]]>The words politics in the original Greek language meant “affairs of the city.” As the Greek city-state arose, the Greeks realized that communal living required some organization so that separate and distinct persons could live together in peace…more or less!. This original intent was noble but history reveals how that “tending the affairs of the city” became increasingly complicated as individuals, and groups of individuals would arise who wanted to have more say-so in these “affairs” than was necessary. Often this “will-to-power” would become so intense that conflict would arise even leading to armed conflict.

This “will-to-power” is an essential dimension of the human heart. If this will can be managed so as to respect other wills present at the time, peace and harmony can prevail. But so often there will be an individual whose wants are inordinate and he will ally with like-minded souls to accomplish a wholly private agenda which always boils down to achieving and maintaining power. This type of person/s never has awareness of what he is doing, always insisting publicly and even privately that he has the best interest of the community in mind. Often he will even boldly assert, even with sincerity, that “God is leading me.” And when god, or the gods, are put on the table then the problem has the potential for ugliness as, “How can anyone question the leadership of God?”

I have a friend who has a bumper sticker on her car that always speaks to me: Awareness is all. Often we are blessed with political leadership who have Awareness and realize that their motives are never perfect and this dialogue with people holding different points of view is necessary. But those who have sold their soul to the quest for unmitigated power always lack this Divine gift and will attempt to mount power even to the detriment of selves and of the collective they seek to lead. We have a glaring demonstration of this phenomenon now in our Congress with the effort to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. Conservative Republicans have been so opposed to Barack Obama that their very identity is now on the line with this repeal and they are willing to push the matter to ultimate extremes, lacking awareness of the puerile motives that are driving them. Power plays of this sort are usually very personal, designed to grind an axe with someone or some group that they resent even to the point of hatred. And in this case it is quite apparent that it is Barack Obama himself that they are still warring against. This is simple projection, focusing on someone else or some other country to deny deep-seated turmoil that is eating away in their heart.

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/the-will-to-power-in-politics/feed/021stcenturyxstianBelieving Only What we Want to Believehttps://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/believing-only-what-we-want-to-believe/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/believing-only-what-we-want-to-believe/#respondWed, 12 Jul 2017 09:47:41 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=867Continue reading →]]>The White House handlers have their hands full with Trump who would not recognize truth if it bitch-slapped him in the face. It is almost painful to watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders squirm in the spot light as she attempts to put a positive spin on the maze of duplicity, outright falsehood, and deliberate obfuscation of truth that the Trump administration puts on our door step each morning. She has now formed a triumvirate with Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer as spokes persons who have made a fool out of themselves in signing onto a job which could only generate foolishness.

I do not think Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a bad person. She is the daughter of Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas who has run for the Presidency several times and who is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. I’m sure here Baptist roots are still conspicuous in her life and they help her to cope in the impossible position she has signed onto. I have no doubt that she is a Christian who has noble intent in her life, professionally and personally. But, just where is integrity? She has taken a job to help purvey egregious dishonesty and I’m sure she believes that God is leading her each day. But, where is the spiritual, moral, and intellectual integrity that would lead most people to resign, probably for some lame-ass reason as, “I want to spend more time with my family.”

Faith is very important to me, believing that faith of any denominational variety has a necessary place in our world. But faith is not beyond the influence of our human penchant to be “dishonest,” to not allow that faith to influence us in the direction of moral, spiritual, and intellectual integrity. And many people have signed onto the Trump agenda whole heartedly, laying aside their personal and spiritual integrity, pinning their hopes that his bluster and lunacy will help “Make America Great Again.” They have pushed the “Do Not Disturb” button in their heart and will not allow critical thinking to take place. When that happens, lunacy cannot help but tease us with its vain promises.

Remember Trump’s brazen vow during the campaign, “I could shoot someone in the streets of Manhattan” and not lose his support base. He was right. He captured many hungry hearts who were, and are willing to suspend judgment and cast their fervent hopes on a man who is the epitome of everything that our country has stood for…or has pretended to stand for…since our birth in 1776. These people are not necessarily bad or unintelligent people. They are merely demonstrating a core human quality, we tend to believe what we want to believe and exclude every consideration that might give us pause. I again use my favorite bumper sticker wisdom, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/believing-only-what-we-want-to-believe/feed/021stcenturyxstianThe Trumps Continue the War on “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/the-trumps-continue-the-war-on-truth-justice-and-the-american-way/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/the-trumps-continue-the-war-on-truth-justice-and-the-american-way/#respondTue, 11 Jul 2017 10:46:13 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=862Continue reading →]]>The Trump administration is again demonstrating its cavalier attitude toward truth and respect for the common human decencies that usually accompany come with personal and professional integrity. Trump’s son, Donald Jr., has been caught red-handed courting Russian interference in last year’s election but immediately the administrations spin machine kicked into gear. This “spin machine” is designed to attempt to make palatable egregious breaches of decorum and compliance with rules, knowing that the base of Trump’s support is sitting anxiously waiting for them to offer a “cover” which will be amenable to their heart’s desires.

No one is completely honest, certainly not politicians. But until Trump there was some limit to subterfuge and “spinning” at which point the humbled politician, often with great shame will acknowledge, “Oops, I am guilty.” This is because most politicians are graced with a human quality which permits them, albeit reluctantly, to admit having made a mistake. But Trump has set up a “machine” in the White House which has as its prime objective declaring to the American public, “I am not at fault. It’s ‘fake news.’”

A related consideration is the administrations sense of entitlement. Donald Jr. demonstrated his father’s penchant for playing loose and easy with basic principles of political decency. When “Jr” was presented with the tasty morsel of an offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton he could not pass it up, knowing that whatever happened the administration’s spin machine would immediately tackle glossing the “difficulty” over. “Jr” had imbibed of the poisonous Kool-aid offered by his father, the knowledge that whatever he might do would be overlooked by his father’s base.

Trump is actually offering the American public a gift. We are now staring face to face with the speciousness of “truth” and a chance to acknowledge just how self-serving our definition of terms like “truth” are. He represents an irruption of our duplicitous heart into the daily charade that we take to be “reality.” Can we learn from self-exposure? Usually not, but I’m not giving up!

]]>https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/the-trumps-continue-the-war-on-truth-justice-and-the-american-way/feed/021stcenturyxstianTrump’s European Adventurehttps://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/trumps-european-adventure/
https://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/trumps-european-adventure/#respondThu, 06 Jul 2017 14:14:54 +0000http://theonlytruthinpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=860Continue reading →]]>In Warsaw, Poland Trump has declared that “the future of the West” is at stake. Furthermore, he continues to speak in a confrontational manner with North Korea, not realizing that in Kim sun Jung, he has met his “twin brother”. One world class bully is facing off with at one of the world’s other bullies. Yes, “the West” is in jeopardy but a critical dimension of this dilemma is that Trump is now the Commander in Chief of the “only remaining super power” in the world. And, boys and girls, do we want this to be the case? My country has elected this egregiously mentally unstable man to the Presidency and since then he has continued to demonstrate his impulsivity and lack of civility to other world leaders. For those of you who are continuing to support him with rhetoric of the sort, “We-need-to-all-stand-behind our President,” you are failing to acknowledge the elephant in the room, “He is mentally unstable.!!!”

Of course, we all are, I agree. But even I, admittedly neurotic as hell, would be a more “mentally stable” figure in the White House than Trump and I’d be smart enough to admit to myself, “Hell what a mess I’ve gotten myself into” and quickly defer to my handlers until I could find a moment to sheepishly resign for some reason like, “I need to spend more time with my family.” Trump enjoys this “mess” he is in and is spared any distress that would “self” consciousness would bring to the table being incapable of considering the suffering and anguish he could soon be subjecting our troops to. In his heart, these troops do not exist nor do the rest of us. To him each day is merely “another day at the ranch” where he can bluster about in complete disregard to the consequences of his action.

Politically, he needs a good war at this point. He is proving to all that he is not capable of being President but all he has to do is start launching missiles and it will be even more incumbent on all good Americans to “stand behind our man.” War would be the perfect distraction to “legitimate” him as President in the mind of many. Unconsciously he knows this and in the mind of some of his minions they know it consciously. This moment, like all moments, will be determined by who, or what is in power. His concerns about “the West” will strike alarm in the hearts of millions and, when faced with the fear of annihilation, human kind will always line up behind their strong man.

But the course of human history, and of each one’s individual history, is not determined only by military and economic power. That is why it is so dangerous that we have put a man like Trump in this position…and then stand hapless by and watch…while he ratches-up the tension everywhere he goes. He loves the tension, like an adrenaline junkie, and has a long history of coming out on top in the resulting childish battles-of-will he creates. But “coming out on top” will not always work for anyone and for a tribe like ours it can lead to devastation. “Coming out on top” is a childish ego-demand and most of us learn at some point in childhood that being driven by “coming out on top” is at some point dangerous to all